Brookie and I made it to church yesterday! We still aren’t taking Skye there yet so I went to church for the first hour and then we came home and Andrew and Brooke went back for the last two hours.

Brooke had the spotlight in primary. I sure loved the answers to her questions! Andrew does most of the cooking around here and Brooke appreciates that ha:)

Our Sunday involved a whole lot of nothing but being lazy and it was perfect.

See… hours later and still doing the same thing ha.

We caught up on a few of our favorite movies to watch together.

And stuck to simple snacks and meals… this was the winner of the day.

And of course a few smiles from Skye!

Let’s discuss a few Monday Matters today:

*As you know (from her kitchen renovation post), my sister is amazing with her home renovations. The best part is she absolutely loves doing them! I wanted to show you her latest one… SHE HAS SKILLS!

Before:

and after:

*Andrew currently has a countdown until baseball season starts on his phone. He is just a little bit excited.

*Allison sent this to me… this means some days we get almost 1000 questions a day haha. Sounds about right!

*Ghirardelli brownies = heaven. This is the stage that Andrew would prefer to have his brownies cooked ha (he could just eat the batter and be happy) but we cooked them a little bit longer.

*A 5:29 mile just days before turning 72 years old… WOW!!!

*How I feel about running right now. It’s weird because running feels a million times easier than running pregnant but it is definitely hard to get back in shape again!

*I cannot wait to play outside today:)

———————————————————————————————-

I’ve got another workout to share with you that I LOVED (ps I am really excited to get back to speed work)!

For this workout you will base your interval time off of your current 5k pace! So if you run a 22 minute 5k, then your 5k pace is a 7:05 mile and that will be the pace you use to measure your intervals. Do an easy warm-up and then start off with 400 meters @ 15 seconds faster than your 5k time, followed by the recovery jog and then the mile @ 5k pace, a 3-4 minute recovery, 800 meters @ 10 seconds faster than your 5k pace, 2-3 minute recovery… You can go through those intervals 1-2 times and then finish up with your cool down.

It makes me SO happy when you tell me that you did one of these workouts so keep letting me know:) You’ve got this!

You May Also Like

56 comments

Skye is so precious! Looks like Brooke is a great big sis!
Glad you get to be back on the roads again – you are right in cue with my dad – he was a D1 polee vaulter, got burnt out, and after 20 years of not running a step, he got back at it last week. Getting back to fit is tough!
Best snack at this time of year – oatmeal with a dollop of PB get me every time.
Have a nice week!

Mel_OutRunCF

I love speed work! I usually do speed work on Fridays (I did 12x400m at 5k pace with 1′ recovery this week in preparation for a 10k in March). Then I take one day to recover and do my long run on Sunday.
I hear you on coming back after pregnancy! Because of pregnancy complications, I had to take an entire year off! Thinking about coming back was pretty scary. It did take time and patience but you know what, overall, it came back pretty quickly. And all the little things that were hurting before were not hurting anymore :-) I even ran my PR on half marathon post-pregnancy. Be ready to surprise yourself :-)

Way to go on your speed workout Mel! That is awesome and I can’t wait to hear about your 10K in March! A year off??? Oh that must have been way scary about coming back! I’m ready to surprise myself too! Thanks Mel and I hope your Monday is a great one!

I LOVE when brownies are a little bit undercooked! I like to do speed days on Tuesday, but this year my running schedule has changed and I’m going to try speed on Sunday. We’ll see how that goes :) Best part of the weekend? Reviving my blog. It fell off of the priority list for a while, but I’m excited to start writing again. Have a great week!

Erica

Thanks for sharing that workout! I think I might attempt it tomorrow—will let you know for sure! The best part of my weekend was working with the high school girls at my church yesterday. I LOVE getting to be involved in the high school ministry and leading this girls small group. I also started playing on a beach flag football team, and we had a game yesterday, which is always super fun!

Definitely Twizzlers. And my favorite snack now and always is Wheat Thins, and I’ve been combining them with Nature Valley Maple Brown Sugar Granola Crunch lately, and I love every bite. :)

Love the workout! I’ll have to attempt it sometime in the next couple weeks. The best part of my weekend was a hike!
I’m not a huge fan of twizzlers or red vines! I prefer swedish fish!
So excited to see you running again :)

How long generally are each of your speed sessions? Each time I have a speed session, I go in feeling dreaded about it but come out feeling so alive! Any tips on relieving the pre speed workout anxiety I have?

That’s a great question! I was 100% the same way for a long time. I think the biggest tip for me is just reminding myself that speedwork I what makes you a faster runner. I’m sure Jenae has some awesome tips for it too!

It really just depends on what I’m training for and the day. Lately they have been something like 5x 2 minute sprints with 2 minute recovery in between or 10 x 1 minute sprints with 1 minute recovery between. But there’s so many workouts. Maybe I’ll do a post on my blog about t soon. But there really are so many options and when you find one that you love that’s a good place to start feeling comfortable doing speed workouts.
I don’t usually eat before a workout. I drink lots of water during and then make sure I eat good after

Sounds like 20-minute workouts! I will definitely check out our blog post on speed workouts once you post them. Would you mind letting me know when it’s out? :) I have a blog of my own so you can contact me easily :)

Rhiannon

Oooh thanks for the workout! I think I found a half marathon I want to do at the end of April so I better get myself going with some speed work! I think the last time I trained for a race, I did speed work on Tuesdays, because I could buffer it with an easy run on Mondays and a strength/cross training on Wednesdays.
TWIZZLERS! Red Vines taste like plastic to me.
Best part – a couple of my friends and I took a road trip to the Chicago area to do some shopping, and met up with another friend of mine who lives there that I don’t get to see as much as I would like. It was SUCH a great time!
Favorite snack – Trader Joe’s PB pretzel nuggets. OMG so good.

This looks like a great workout! I typically do speed workouts on Monday and Thursdays which works well for my schedule.
Your sister is so talented with remodels! The room looks so nice.
Usually I’m a Twizzlers girl but occasionally I’ll get a craving for Red Vines. Just rarely though. My favorite snack right now is chips and salsa. I make the easiest salsa ever at home and it tastes so much better than the store bought stuff.
My highlight from this weekend was either the runners high from 10 miles or the dinner date that came to be after our original plans got ruined.

Hey Jaye!!! I will ask her to write a little something up about it but I will tell you what I saw her do! She just got some thin wood and placed it around the edges of each door! She used a nail gun to place them and then filled up the holes before painting them! It didn’t take too long but it made the biggest difference! I hope you have a great day!

I am with Andrew – brownies barely cooked are the best. Especially when you mix them up with some vanilla ice cream…. :)

I remember when I used to nanny how much my five year old asked questions. About literally anything and everything. And she could totally tell when I started to tune her out and just say yes to everything once in a while when I was exhausted….she would pick up on it right away and be like “Allison, that was not a yes or no question” haha!

I love those Costco pretzel thins with cheese in the middle…that may be one of my favorite snacks. But I would say that my current favorite snack is Lebanese garlic dip with any kind of pita chip. So good.

Elizabeth

Skye’s cheeks are getting so cute and chubby! Her little smiles melt my heart :)
Tuesday is typically speed day for me. Right now my coach has me doing some sort of stride/speed 3x a week and Saturday seems to be the hardest. I’m really working on my form and strength after being injured in 2017. I’m trying to be patient about my speed coming back, but I can tell my form is better.
Twizzlers FTW!
My weekend was awesome. The weather finally warmed up a bit. I also had a fun lunch with my girlfriends yesterday. I ate WAYYYY too much.

I am so glad you had such a great weekend and that it warmed up for you! I’ll work on my form with you right now:) so glad you are back to training after your injury! Have a beautiful day and good luck on your speed tomorrow!

alisha

Janae! So glad you are out running again! I hope to head out tomorrow. We had a foot of snow in NC last week – which is an insane amount for here, so running on ice was not in the plan. :) I love that you constantly remind us to focus on our present running and be appreciative of that (not the past). So I hope you keep enjoying the journey without stressing over a destination!

Twizzlers.

Ok, Sissy is INCREDIBLE. That is insane!!! She should just do that for people on the side! Are yall sending these into HGTV? I am sure they would be impressed and give her her own show or at least be a contestant for something. I am beyond impressed. Mad skills.

Katelyn

Your sister is amazing, I wish I was brave enough to tackle house projects like her. I’m sure it takes a lot of patience, time and learning, but the outcome must be so worth it. Satisfying to say, “hey, I did that!” and probably saves a ton of money compared to hiring a contractor.
You have me craving the brownie mix, I think I’m going to have to pick some up on my way home from work!
So I hope this isn’t too nosey, but I’m totally curious, how has Brooke adapted with blending families and has she asked questions yet to understand why she has two people in her life she calls dad? It just got me curious as I know you’ve mentioned she calls him Dada. My boyfriend was older (second grade) when his Dad remarried, so he has never called his stepmom “mom”, he has just always called her by her actual name. His parents had 50-50 custody, and he’s said his stepmom never wanted to feel like she was replacing his mom. My mom went through something similar – her dad remarried when she was in college, so she’s never called his wife her mom, and i’ve never called her grandma. I know every situation is different, so it just got my wheels turning, haha! I always appreciate your openness and vulnerability about divorce so I thought maybe an update on the blending process could be interesting after seeing those cute Spotlight answers!

Hey Katelyn!!! You better get some of that brownie mix ASAP! It is so good! Great questions and thank you for sharing what you and your boyfriend experienced! I will write a post about this for sure but I’ll give you a shorter answer now too:) Brooke hasn’t questioned yet why she has two dads in her life. She doesn’t really remember life before Andrew (she was 3 when they met) and spends a lot of time with him (especially since he is home almost daily)! We let her decide what to call him (on the spotlight her teacher just wrote dad instead of dada) and that’s what she chose! She feels a bond to both of them big time and I think this is just the only life she knows. It probably would be different if she was gone more or if the divorce happened later in her life but having two ‘dads’ is just her normal if that makes sense. It would probably feel weird for her to just have one dad at this point ha! I hope that answers it a little bit but I’ll write something more detailed soon!

I can definitely believe they ask that many questions, I work with kids and I feel like all I do all day long is answer questions- often the same one over and over again aha! Definitely twizzlers!

Best part about my weekend was going mini golfing (which I still somehow hadn’t done despite being 20 aha) and getting an essay done- not fun but means I don’t have to do it this week! Hope you’re having a great Monday:)

Twizzlers for sure. Lately my snack craving has been cinnamon buns with icing. Best part of the weekend – we went to Whistler for the weekend and decided on an impromptu visit to the Scandinave Spa. Thermal hot springs, sauna, hot steam room. Fat flakes of snow were falling while we sat in the thermal pools and we had mountain views. Also, they had outdoor fire pits. It was amazing.

Sadly no speedwork at the moment but just incorporating speed into my runs.

Happy Monday!

Stacey

Skye’s cheeks are so stinkin’ cute. And, I love Andrew’s face in the picture with Brooke doing her cute tongue thing. Truly the expression of a new parent. I think my husband and I sport the same look on a regular basis ;)
My favorite snack lately is a slice of my husband’s Babka bread with butter. If I’m pretending to be healthy, it’s a banana with almond butter.
Since I’m not currently training for anything besides life and post partum recovery, I don’t have a designated “speed” day. It usually just happens if I’m feeling good.
Twizzlers… preferably the black ones.

My favorite snack at the moment is teriyaki jerky strips. They’re so good and I like that I’m getting protein with my snack. My other favorite are sea salt roasted chickpeas.

The best part of my weekend was either our new appliances delivered or dinner with my in-laws. (our stove was 49 years old and during the past year pieces started to break and could no longer be repaired. It baked like a champ though. Along with that the magnet on our fridge started going so the door would open randomly, the fridge was over 24 years old but worked fine otherwise. Again it’s no longer made so we couldn’t just replace the stripping).

The best part of my weekend is always date night with my handsome husband. Twizzlers for sure! Halo Top is a favorite snack right now. Cookie Dough flavor! I love lazy Sundays so jealous of your great pics (I had to work).

First things first……I’m totally with Andrew on the brownies. I think the only reason to put them in the oven is to heat them up until you don’t have to eat it with a spoon! haha.
Twizzlers – no question about it. Wish I had some right now. :)
I am at my daughter’s house and the best thing this weekend was watching my 6 month old grandson in swim class. Then I also got to run along the ocean which is so beautiful! Having some issues a couple miles out with my IT band which is new to me so I’ve gotta find out what to do….

Amy

I usually do an interval run mid-week. I tried the one you posted last week and loved it! I was going to do it again this week, but maybe I’ll try this new one you just posted instead.

Since I don’t really like any kind of licorice (even Twizzlers) I’ll tell you all a random story instead. So I just got back from running 6 miles on the gym treadmill. My plan – for a variety of specific reasons – was to run a 1 mile warm up, and then get gradually faster each mile from miles 2-5, and then a 1 mile cool down. ANYWAY, it was nearing that last 1 mile cool down when a song came on that I really like and I started getting angry about some super crappy things happening to some of my closest friends right now, and I was like SCREW THE COOL DOWN I AM GOING FASTER and increased my speed again…

For the last 10th of a mile I decided to see if I could push it and “sprint” (my own body’s current definition of “sprint”) at a 7.9 mph on the treadmill. That is a big deal for me at this point in this training period. And guess what?? The treadmill GOT STUCK ON 7.8!!! Like….really, universe?? The specific speed I worked up to for almost 6 miles of running was exactly 0.1 mph out of my reach because the machine got stuck?!! Haha I hopped on the neighboring (functioning) treadmill and finished the run, but STILL. Omg. Leave it to me lol

Loribeth

Katherine

I did your workout this morning–it’s tough! I was having a hard time hitting all the paces (my 5K pace is a little outdated), so I used the rest intervals to run uphill, so that I could have a little help on the speed intervals by running downhill. Thank you for sharing! I really like that the length of the intervals vary, so I wasn’t continually dreading the next, longer interval :)

I’m so happy to see you’re back to running. I’ve been reading your blog for a long time, and appreciate your positive attitude so much.

AHHH KATHERINE… huge congrats on getting this workout in! It is definitely a tough one! Great idea to switch things up with the incline too, I love it. Thank you for your sweet comment, it made me smile! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!